John Lindal’s Blog

The Matrix

Why is it that people so dislike the sequels to The Matrix? Is it just because they contained so much more dialogue? Or is it that the battle against the system, so passionate in the first movie, was tempered by the realization that even resistance is just another cog in the system?

Time Trap

I just finished Keith Laumer’s Time Trap, published by Baen Books. I found it interesting that Laumer’s time trap worked exactly the same way as in Groundhog Day: It reset every 24 hours, but you remembered everything from the previous cycles. If you were hurt or killed, you woke up whole again at the reset.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

My wife borrowed The Muppet Christmas Carol from the local library this weekend. I was a bit leery of it, since it was released after Jim Henson’s death, but it turned out to be very good — if you like a good story mixed with a healthy dose of Muppet Madness^TM. What can you expect when Gonzo narrates and Rizzo tags along for the ride? There were a few minor adjustments, like adding a second Marley, but it all made sense, given how the roles were doled out to the muppets. Lest you think it was all muppeteering, Michael Caine did a wonderful job playing Scrooge.

The Godfather

I think I’ve mentioned in earlier posts just how boring it is to be sick. Being in the hospital is even worse. But it gave me a chance to watch The Godfather. It was on infinite re-runs on one channel.

Terrifying movie! It must suck living in a world where you really can’t trust anybody.

I am hopelessly out of touch with film, since I tend to read books, unlike the guy I saw in an infomercial who, while hawking his book on how to get rich on real estate, proudly stated that he had read, like, maybe 5 books in his entire life. (Do textbooks count?)

Given this blissful ignorance of film, The Godfather must be a very influential film, because even I could recognize scenes that had inspired others:

The Devil’s Advocate

The sequence where Al Pacino stands in church and dips his finger into the Holy Water while Keanu Reeves listens to an endless list of crimes recited by a federal agent who is ultimately hit and killed by a car is clearly intended to parallel the sequence where Al Pacino renounced Satan at the baptism of his godson while his rivals were gunned down. Whoever wrote the sequence for The Devil’s Advocate must have been having fun.

The Fairly OddParents

Big Daddy sleeps with a horse head pillow. This must be a reference to the scene where the movie directory wakes up to find the head of his best, most expensive horse lying in his bed, as payback for refusing one of Don Corleone’s requests.

What’s New with Phil & Dixie

In response to a gambler not being able to pay, the bookie orders one of the goons to Tear up one of his Alpha Nightmares and leave the head in his bed.

Devil’s Advocate

This movie is scary, but it would be even scarier if somebody watched it and didn’t get scared because the main point is that the battle never ends. Every time you overcome one temptation, another one comes along before you have time to blink. Satan is infinitely clever, beyond anything we can anticipate, so we stumble over and over again. Without the forgiveness offered by Jesus Christ, we would all be lost.

I didn’t like the fact that the main character said no to Old Scratch by committing suicide, since that is itself a sin, and I have philosophical problems with the idea that time could rewind, but neither of these detract from the main point. It’s an awesome, terrifying movie.

Iron Man

I got a chance to watch it on the flight home from Norway. Fun movie. Of course, we all want a suit like that

Am I the only one bothered by the size of the hole in Tony Stark’s chest? There is no way his esophagus could still work, and it looked like the hole was high enough up that it would block his trachea, too. So basically, he can’t breathe or swallow!

Any why did both suits leave smoke/vapor trails when flying? It looks cool, but surely they are repulsors, not rocket engines? Neither suit had any storage tanks for the chemical fuel required for rocket engines. And the hand repulsors, which were used for additional acceleration, did not leave trails!

Prince Caspian

If you love Narnia, don’t see this movie.

OK, so much for the executive summary. The extended previews on Disney Channel sounded wrong, and I re-read the book to confirm this, so I went to the theater with very low expectations. However, nothing could have prepared me for something this abysmal. Peter Jackson has moved down to #2 on my Worst Butchers In History list. Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, this movie is worse than Peter Jackson’s anti-accomplishment. The reason is simply that, while The Lord of the Rings is a deep and intricate story, the Narnia series is so simple. Each book has one main theme. If you throw that out the window, there is nothing left.

The first book is about Christ dying for our sins. To my eternal astonishment, they got that movie right.

The second book is about Faith, both by people who have never experienced Christ, but who feel deep in their soul that the message is true, and those who have not experienced Christ in a while, in the middle of a so called dry spell. And about the Joy of discovering or re-uniting with Christ.

This movie had neither.

Instead of Prince Caspian and his army hanging on to hope while sustaining mounting losses, finally blowing Queen Susan’s horn in their darkest hour, and then having to hang on to hope even a bit longer before help finally arrived, the children meet Caspian at the beginning of the movie and proceed to invade Miraz’ castle with disastrous results.

Instead of Lucy and Susan romping with Aslan to reawaken the trees and the rest of Old Narnia, Susan leads the archers in the final battle while Lucy actually goes in search of Aslan, as if He were some random lion who lives in the woods, rather than the Creator and Driving Force of Narnia.

Reepicheep was OK. All the other characters were hopelessly distorted.

Sony Classics

Sony Classics releases some really good movies.

Shower captures life in a slower, simpler time — when people had time to take baths in a bath house and bond with their neighbors to a depth where they could help save a marriage — and contrasts it with our current, ultra-fast-paced lifestyle that only allows for a five minute shower each day. If you run too fast, you may find that you left your self behind.

Shadow Magic uses the introduction of moving pictures to illustrate the social upheaval in China caused by the influx of Western ideas. The story is built upon the few known facts about the first movie produced in China by Chinese people. The deep divide between Eastern and Western culture shines through clearly and painfully.

Lord of the Rings

It occurred to me today that perhaps The Lord of the Rings no longer can be made into a successful movie. Today’s audiences want main characters to whom they can relate, but The Lord of the Rings is built on ancient legends from a time when people needed characters who could inspire because they were a cut above the ordinary.

This does not excuse Peter Jackson’s mangling of Tolkien’s masterpiece, but perhaps it does explain why Gandalf was made a bumbling fool and Aragorn was portrayed as reluctant to reforge Narsil. The real Gandalf was a tactician on par with Niven’s Pak Protectors, while Aragorn was a living embodiment of Nobility — both so far beyond human ken that it is excusable to label their motivations as alien.

I do think the story could be faithfully told on the screen, but it would be necessary to frame it with characters who clearly convey their awe of the tale and their reverence for characters like Gandalf and Aragorn. These frame characters would be the ones to whom today’s audiences could relate.

Transformers

I finally got to see Transformers. It was a good test of our new sound system, but unfortunately, that was about it. Well, OK, the robots were cool, but I never really got excited about the original Transformers when I was a kid, because the toys were too darn expensive.

There was nothing original about the plot. Every twist has already been heavily overused: the all-powerful, alien artifact hidden on Earth, the evil menace frozen in Arctic ice, evil robots out to destroy Earth, stupid Americans thinking the Russians/North Koreans/etc. are attacking, the secret government agency hiding information about aliens, alien technology being the real source of all the technological breakthroughs of the 20^th century, etc.

I guess it’s par for the course for a summer blockbuster…